Pirelli has acquired 30 percent of the Swedish company Univrses, specialized in the application of artificial intelligence technologies to road mobility, reserving the option to reach a majority stake.
WHAT PIRELLI AND UNIVRSES WILL DO
The two companies have also signed an agreement to integrate Univrses’ 3DAI Engine technology, that is, a computer vision software based on artificial intelligence, into Pirelli’s Cyber Tyre, the integrated platform that allows data collection through sensors placed in the tires, their processing, and real-time communication with the vehicle’s driving and control devices.
The combination of the two technologies “will allow for safer and higher-performing vehicles,” also with a view to autonomous driving, Pirelli explained in a statement. Furthermore, “it will provide real-time data for the management and maintenance of road infrastructures”: information on road conditions will be collected both from tire sensors and from the vehicle’s onboard cameras.
THE PROJECT IN PUGLIA
A first project of this kind is already underway in Italy: last year, the Puglia Region launched, together with Pirelli, a monitoring system for the regional road network to create an updated map of infrastructure conditions, starting precisely from data collected through cameras and the Cyber Tyre platform.
ASTON MARTIN ALSO BETS ON CYBER TYRE
In September, Aston Martin, a company specialized in luxury cars, signed a collaboration agreement with Pirelli for the integration of Cyber Tyre technology into its future models. “The introduction of the Cyber Tyre system represents a further technological step [to] maintain leadership in terms of performance,” the British car manufacturer stated.
THE POLITICAL ISSUE
However, a major political issue has developed around the Cyber Tyre technology because Pirelli’s largest shareholder is the Chinese state-owned company Sinochem, with a 34.1 percent stake. The company is trying to avoid the ban of its products in the United States, a very important market, after the Americans prohibited the sale of Chinese technologies for “connected vehicles” for security reasons.
The Italian government also considers the Cyber Tyre platform a critical technology due to its ability to collect data from the vehicle and the surrounding environment, so much so that it intervened to protect it with golden power already in June 2023. On April 10, the government again exercised special powers over Pirelli to limit Sinochem’s influence.
